Legal awareness needs to be strengthened! Amazon is suspected of unfair and unreasonable terms

Recently, according to the results of the "Survey on Internet Consumers' "Order Cancellation" Issue" released by the Beijing Consumers Association , 17 e-commerce platforms were suspected of unfair and unreasonable terms, and Amazon was also on the list . The so-called "order cancellation" refers to some e-commerce operators attracting consumers to place orders by offering discounts and promotions, and then unilaterally canceling the orders after the consumers have placed the orders.

The problems of Amazon's alleged unfair and unreasonable terms in this investigation are roughly as follows: due to various factors (including technical problems) caused by incorrect product information (wrong pricing) or out of stock, as well as other unavoidable or uncontrollable situations, customer orders will be canceled and notified. Other suspected platform problems are roughly similar. When buying goods on the Amazon platform, consumers can often see the above information. (Picture from the official website of the Beijing Consumer Association).

Unfair and unreasonable terms can be understood as operators unilaterally evading legal obligations and reducing their own responsibilities based on their own regulations or statements, notices, contracts, etc. Such terms will cause inequality between consumers and operators, infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and to some extent are equivalent to disguised fraud.

Such clauses, while infringing on the rights of consumers, also expose problems of operators and sellers: weak legal awareness and insufficient understanding of legal responsibilities. Previously, China has issued the "E-Commerce Law", which has made relevant provisions on operators, cross-border e-commerce business, legal responsibilities, dispute resolution and other aspects, but there are still people who test the law.

Of course, Amazon is not the only one that has the problem of canceling orders. Among the platforms suspected of using unfair and unreasonable terms, there are 17 e-commerce platforms of different types, including JD.com, Xiaomi Youpin, Huawei Mall, etc.

Here, the editor reminds sellers that while enhancing their operational capabilities, they should also pay attention to the cultivation of legal awareness. Previously, some of the Amazon platform’s account bans and illegal operations in associations were also quite obvious, which is closely related to the parties’ understanding of laws and regulations. In the course of business operations, sellers cannot ignore the legal provisions in front of them, let alone think about taking advantage of legal loopholes.

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